Performance Review

I feel that the performance was an overall success. It was effective to establish interest in these four characters by forcing the audience to question the relation to our characters to each other, but more importantly to the viewer themselves. We've now engraved ourselves within the subconscious of all who viewed the performance, which when it comes time for the movie screening, will work in our favor.

It was important that we did not have any sort of interaction with the audience, r to stimulate curiosity, and as a whole, we did this very effectively. We all managed to ignore people speaking directly to us, avoid direct eye contact, and create a general separation between "us" and "them". The most effective point in the performance, to my mind, was when Wesly did his scream. Just as the audience had accepted what we were doing, and the general confusion (or curiosity) had subsided, Wesly's scream silenced the entire room (even for just on moment) and drew our performance back into the center of attention.

The audience seemed generally confused, many of them asking us what was going on, which, yielded no results for them. The audiences reactions to our non-responsiveness varied from "Oh, this is a performance" to being angry that they were being ignored. We successfully created an illusion that we did not exist on the same plane as them, as if what was occurring in the reality of the situation was not occurring to us.

Personally, I was pleased that I managed to look no persons in the eyes (excluding those performing with me). Going in I was afraid that I may break character and laugh at the situation, but generally, I feel that I managed to keep it together. I wanted to stare through people, not at them; I guess to me, it is far more unnerving to be completely not recognized rather than ignored.

We documented the event through still photography. We had a friend lined up to show p as we were performing and take photos of us, the audience, and all surroundings of the scene.

I have always been interested in incorporating performance in my work, but have always had inhibition when dealing with staying in character effectively. This performance helped me get over that, I showed myself that If I really do concentrate on getting into the psychology of the character beforehand, that I can remove myself from myself and live vicariously through said character.

Performance

Meaning of Wine stunt/ entire performance

Comment on marketing using edgy tactics to appeal to teens. Television is loaded with imagery and symbols to create an image of the cutting edge, when in reality, they are simply selling false ideals. The realization that the wine bottle are filled with colored water will hopefully force the viewer to question the illusion of the television to which they invest their time. These images are not real, they are all illusions, the very idea of television is a marketing dream. All persons sitting still, captured by projected light plots, waiting patiently for the next stream of advertisements.

We would like the idea of FREE! FREE! FREE! Everything to be the main reason people show up to our screening. We will serve them half eaten, left over food, and Fake wine, destroying their illusions of their American ideal. We wish to show that within our consumerist economy, all that is truly bought and sold are false illusions of a family (or personal) ideal.

Rather than watching programming or marketing ploys on the television screens, we will be watching ourselves existing on the screen. People should look deeper into their motivations behind investing so much of themselves into a consumer illusion. We must look into ourselves. There is nothing for us upon this screen, only the flickering of dim specters, which propagate our ideals for us. We must take agency upon on our own minds, we must combat the circulation of a system which dictates what it is that we desire. We can’t live these false dreams. Let’s breath in the sun, Exhale the moon.

If your mind could be projected upon the television screen, what would appear? Would you bathe in the shimmering light of enlightened hearts, or drift helplessly upstream through a river of “have” and “have not’s”. To which have you been placed?

Watch TV, it is easy. spoon feed what is right and what Is wrong, what you need and what you don’t. Lay there awaiting the dawn of the next Sun sale, 20.00 dollars off! NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! There’s no motivation, needn’t be any.

Sound Collage Sample for public art piece.

http://rcpt.yousendit.com/776717162/869b2f4ab3bd59320055de6423d5f88c

character

I’ve been thinking of absurdity in the sense of it’s use as a noun, “quality or condition of existing in an irrational world”. To develop a character from that Idea, I would like to view the character’s actions or situation as more of an absurdity. I feel that in a lot of ways, the way we view the world, or under which pretenses we accept reality becomes very irrational through means of logic and rationalization. We build constructs or prototypes of ideals in which we wish everything to fit, as we experience it. I think rather than placing the absurd within the mind of the human, one must see that the world, and it’s perpetration, is not based on an simple logic. The moon rises and it falls, we know this, and we know, in terms of it’s relations to our earth it has a purpose., but it’s logic in relation to us, metaphysically does not seem possible to reduce.

I see the way people react within the world is more of a response of irrationality and absurdity, rather than being absurd themselves.

How does your character think?

He thinks as a reactionary. He sifts through a world which he/she believes to be irrational in it’s logic and constructs of standard ideals, and responds to it in seemingly “irrational” ways. Reacting to societies irrationality by acting in ways Society deems irrational.

How does your character think he/she think?

He thinks that the way he/she is acing is not irrational. He doesn’t view people actions as irrational. He thinks that he thinks in terms of subversion.

What do they want?

He wants to subvert the idea of this irrationality of behavior. He wishes to point out through his actions that the

What do they think they want?

He thinks that he wants understanding. He wants for society to break down walls of separations based on material and idealogical preference, and begin building a stream of understanding.

What is their truth (mythology)?

His mythology lies heavily in a connection or oneness through a universal consciousness. A connection with the natural world and humankind. Believes in an undeniable connection between all ideas and existence.

What is their REAL truth or mythology?

His REAL truth, in terms of tangible properties of truth or mythology is that he is a human. He exists in the world. Outside of the world of science there can be no essential truth, aside from his biology or anatomy, he has no REAL truth.

What do they need?

Needs soundness of mind. Needs to feel that through his existence, he’s perpetuated the cycle of cognitive progression. Though he is flawed by thinking that one must consciously do this.

What do they think they need?

He thinks he needs to represent his ideals and build them prominently within the world’s consciousness.

What actions does the character undertake?

Very animated and borderline a typical, example (in first film having character eat and throw up flowers) not that specifically but surreal acts which could represent his connection within the world and humankind.

What does the character think they do?

He thinks he exists more in the world of ideas and symbols rather than the tangible/physical world.

What does the audience need?

To understand is way of thinking or his psychology, they must understand him in order for him to perpetuate his ideals.

How can you push them to understand?

Through symbols and actions. engulfing himself in symbols, and his reaction to them.

What do they feel?

How important are the acts undertaken by the character?

Very, they must represent his ideas. Ideas must be expressed tangibly in order for them to be exposed. Either through word, art, or action (all of which are interlinked)

New Concept

My film will deal with the relationship between poetry and short film. More so, in the sense of the immediacy and expression of mood rather than narrative.

It will be composed of 3 segments, each representing an individual character.

Each individual will choose a poem they have written specifically to represent a specific land(dream) scape. The film will aim to portray the mood/atmosphere of these landscapes

the first part of each segment will show a portrait of the subject shot shoulder up. They will be in complete darkness only illuminated by projected light upon their face. The light will be "readymade" footage that relates to a tangible representation of the mood filling their mind. They will stare into the camera, seemingly mentally engulfed by the light.

Then it will cut to the same character existing within the world created through their poem, with them reading said poem. These landscapes will be decided upon by deliberation between me and the poet in order to tangibly recreate the mood of the poem.

LAst shot will be a landscape with nobody existing within it, but all 3 characters reading a poem that has taken parts of all of their previous poems, re contextualizing lines, and creating a new poem, which all 4 (characters and myself) will read in synch.

Film will ultimately show the loss of individuality in ideas (or ideals) once entered into the realm of the collective conscious, including them in a broader picture, effecting the entire shape of human knowledge rather than there own/.

Concept for Film 4

I want to work within the idea of short film as related to poetry. In terms of writing, poetry is the most immediate form, lending itself to an exploration of metaphysics rather than the world of the language itself.

I want to rework an idea that was the basis of a photo assignment in which I tried to document the idea of light (or energy) passing from the mind of the artist, through a camera lens, and surrounding the subject of the photograph, inevitably resulting in painted light upon film. I did not see the final photo series as a success because the medium made a large disconnect from the narrative of the piece. I want to try this idea once more, but through, what I feel, is a more suitable medium.

I’m going to create a metafilm of sorts. Showing the entire moment of a photographs conception from the mind of the artist all the way to the film in the camera, which forever engraves this fleeting moment into the universal consciousness.

STALEMATE

Artist Statement

I am an undergraduate student at the Memphis College of Art, concentrating on Photography, and more recently filmmaking. Stalemate is an exploration of the psychology of two central characters. The first; a man who derives his knowledge of the metaphysical world through use of theory, sees the world through the pages of his book. The second derives his understanding from experience, throwing himself deep within the grasp of the natural world. The film attempts to study this split, depicting the two characters meeting for a game of chess, which results in a stalemate; showing that one process of cognitive progression does no supersede another.

Synopsis

Dichotomy between theory and experience. Two characters wander, seeking truth within their worlds. Each with opposing means of discovery. Each with a common destination; a game of chess.